period: Emma Bovary

Emma Bovary

Madame Bovary was Gustave Flaubert’s first, and greatest, novel. Its publication in La Revue de Paris in 1856 resulted in Flaubert’s trial for obscenity; after his acquittal in February 1857 Madame Bovary was published as a single volume and quickly became a bestseller.

Emma Bovary is a doctor’s wife who struggles to escape the banalities and emptiness of her provincial life during the time of the July Monarchy. She has a highly romanticised view of the world and craves beauty, wealth, passion, and high society. It is the disparity between these romantic ideals and the realities of her country life that drive most of the novel, most notably leading her into two extramarital love affairs as well as causing her to accrue an insurmountable amount of debt that eventually leads to her suicide.

According to Erica Jong, Mario Vargas Llosa said: ‘If Emma Bovary had not read all those novels, it is possible that her fate might have been different.’

Classic movie and TV mini-series fodder: there have been some fifteen screen adaptations as well as the recent Gemma Bovery.